Australia and NZ announce new initiatives

Date: February 09 2013

Laura McQuillan

Trans-Tasman talks have centred on sweeping new agreements for New Zealand to take refugees from Australian detention centres, the slashing of mobile phone roaming rates and cooperation on health and travel.

On the 30th anniversary of the closer economic ties (CER) agreement, Prime Minister Julia Gillard's talks with her Kiwi counterpart John Key in the South Island city of Queenstown ended in a series of announcements aimed at further cementing bilateral ties between the two nations.

The most controversial of the agreements is an arrangement for New Zealand to annually settle 150 refugees processed by Australia.

To be introduced in 2014, the intake will make up part of New Zealand's 750-refugee annual quota - and in future, could include refugees processed at Australia's offshore detention centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea's Manus Island.

Ms Gillard was adamant the arrangement would not be an incentive for asylum seekers to set sail for Australia, saying they would have no advantage over other refugees.

"We are equalising waiting periods, so we are saying to them 'you come to Australia, you are processed and you are a genuine refugee, you will not get a resettlement opportunity permanently in Australia or, indeed, in New Zealand until you have spent the same amount of time that you would have if you hadn't moved," she said.

Mr Key said taking in the former asylum seekers was a way for New Zealand to contribute to a "regional issue" - one in which Australia invested a lot of time, money and resources to intelligence gathering, intercepting boats and combating people-smuggling.

He said only those who had demonstrated they were "genuine refugees" in Australia would be accepted.

"It's not an increase in the number of refugees that New Zealand takes but it's a different sourcing of location of those refugees," he said.

Refugee advocates attacked the agreement as likely to force more asylum seekers to risk the boat journey to Australia, while Australian opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison claimed it contradicted the government's own no-advantage test.

"The prime minister can't have a no-advantage and then be saying to people on Nauru, you'll be going to New Zealand," he said.

"Julia Gillard just keeps putting sugar on the table for people smugglers and now she is trying to put Kiwi sugar on the table as well."

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young described the agreement as a bandaid to cover up the failure of offshore processing to stop the number of boat arrivals, while Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said it "a pointless deal, a regional non-solution".

Mr Key and Ms Gillard also announced that telecommunications providers will have to slash their trans-Tasman international roaming costs or face potential price caps from regulators.

They agreed to further streamline trans-Tasman travel, including expanding the SmartGate self-processing passport control system to airport departures.

In a health initiative, both countries will contribute $A2.6m ($NZ3.18m) to a joint effort to develop a rheumatic fever vaccine.

They also signed agreements on new retirement savings portability arrangements to come into effect from July and agreed to work on a reciprocal student debt recovery scheme.

Ms Gillard also announced a new $A5 million Australian Memorial to be built in Wellington in time for the Anzac centenary in 2015.

Later on Saturday, the leaders were to lay wreaths at the Queenstown War Memorial, before visiting nearby Arrowtown.

Ms Gillard flies back to Australia on Sunday.

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